


Discovering Robbie

by gayyyluigi



Series: A Criminal's Son [1]
Category: LazyTown
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Past Child Abuse, Pre-Slash, half-elf Robbie, implications of past child prostituion, in which Glanni is a horrible father and generally an awful person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-30
Updated: 2016-12-30
Packaged: 2018-09-13 08:26:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9114967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gayyyluigi/pseuds/gayyyluigi
Summary: Robbie never really knew who he was, but perhaps delving into his past will give him some hints.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So, quick note: Stína isn't really the same Stína from Glanni Glæpur í Latabæ. I basically took that implication that Glanni and Stína were flirting/fooling around and developed this Stína from there in a way that supported my HCs.
> 
> Also, I have no idea how the Icelandic last name system works, so I just went with what I knew. Sorry about that lol!

Robbie Rotten.

That was the name on all his legal papers. The name on his driver's license, on his credit cards. That was all anyone knew him by.

It was the only thing Robbie's father had ever called him, that was for sure.

"Look at you, you rotten little boy," his father would sneer, glaring down at Robbie where he was shackled to the wall of the basement. "Rotten little Robbie. You should be grateful I didn't smother you the moment you were born, you little brat. Pathetic."

When his father had been apprehended for his crimes (which were many), the police had found little Robbie, only 14 years of age, chained to the wall, emaciated and terrified. The boy didn't know what his real last name was. All he knew was that he was rotten little Robbie to his father. And so, Robbie Rotten became the name they used for the boy.

Now, so many years later, Robbie obviously knew he wasn't named Robbie Rotten at birth. The last name Rotten would just be ridiculous for anyone other than him to have, would it not? And he was determined to find his real name, find out what the mother he couldn't even remember had named him when he was born.

To find out, Robbie had to snoop around in the house that had once belonged to his father (who was now serving a life sentence and wouldn't be needing it any time soon). Since he was the villain's son, the house belonged to him now. He never went in, though. Too many bad memories. The only thing he'd done was have a crew come in to clean and refurbish the basement so that it no longer looked as it had back then, bodily fluids staining the concrete floor and the walls. He also had a maid come and keep things tidy so the house wouldn't fall into disrepair, lest he ever get the urge to sell it. Other than that, the house had remained untouched.

Robbie didn't want to go in there. Even if it had been decades since his wretched childhood, even if there was no real danger any longer. The memories were too real, too terrifying. But he had to know. He had to know his real name. And so, one day, he finally gathered every last scrap of his courage and entered the home, knowing that there had to be SOMETHING inside that had his true name on it.

It took hours upon hours of scouring through files for him to find anything. Most of the papers were business contracts of sorts between his father and other various criminals. It made Robbie shudder in disgust. Robbie was the town villain, sure, but he wasn't a criminal. He would've never done any of the heinous things his father had. But finally, he came across a file labeled "Robert", which was stuffed away in the back of a closet, hidden pretty well from anyone who might snoop about.

Robbie opened the file with trembling hands, almost afraid of what he might find. The first thing he saw was a small collection of old, faded photos, arranged inside sheet protectors. In one, there was a beautiful Dark Elven woman with long, soft-looking auburn hair in a hospital bed, clearly having had just given birth, holding a little blue bundle in her arms. Robbie's eyes widened in shock. That... that was him! He was.... half Dark Elf? Well, that explained a lot. In another picture, the same woman was pushing a toddler on the swings, both laughing as the toddler was swung up high. The next picture featured him blowing out the candles of his first birthday cake, frosting all over his face. Peculiarly enough, his father was in none of these pictures. Had he been divorced from the woman? 

Robbie was fascinated by each photo that he saw, eyes welling up with tears. He'd never seen any pictures of himself as a child, and he hadn't remembered what his mother looked like. But now that he'd seen the picture, shreds of foggy memory returned to him. The gentle curve of her smile. The way her eyes sparkled. It made Robbie want to weep. What had ever happened to her....?

Then, he saw a bunch of newspaper clippings behind the pictures. He pulled them out, paling and feeling sick as he read the headlines. "LOCAL BOY, 5, KIDNAPPED". "SEARCH CONTINUES FOR LOST LAZYTOWN CHILD". "MISSING CHILD NOW PRESUMED DEAD". Pictures of him, along with pictures of his grieving mother, accompanied the articles. So his father had kidnapped him. That's why this whole mess started. Robbie felt his suppressed anger begin to boil inside of him, and he grit his teeth and scowled. How he wished that his father had gotten the death penalty instead of a life sentence! That would've made things so much more fair, after all he'd done!

But... why didn't they realize who Robbie was when they had apprehended his father? Perhaps it was because Robbie looked little like the child in the pictures. He had been so bone-thin, his hair had been lightened and become brittle and scraggly, his eyes had lost their shine... it was no wonder that nobody even considered that he might've been the little dark-haired baby with the infectious smile shown in the pictures.

In the back of the folder, Robbie saw a sheet of card stock. Curious, he pulled it out, gasping softly as he realized what it was. His birth certificate. His name at birth had been Róbert Hrafn Símalína. His mother's name was Stína Símalína, and, of course, his father's name was Glanni Glæpur, a name which Robbie had come to loathe.

Robbie bit at his lip, the tears finally beginning to fall. He returned everything to the folder and curled in on himself, burying his face in his knees and wrapping his arms around his legs. He began to weep bitterly, shaking his head. He'd had a mother who loved him. She hadn't abandoned him. It was all his father's fault. Robbie's heart was aching so terribly. Poor Stína had never known what happened to her little boy. She had no idea that he was still alive, and was now healthy (at least, compared to how he'd been when Glanni had kept him) and bright and all grown up. She had no idea that he was out there in the world, not buried in a shallow grave somewhere. And knowing that she never found out what became of him hurt. It hurt a lot.

Suddenly, Robbie felt strong, warm arms wrapping around him. He leaned against the person, letting out a mournful sob. "H-how.... h-how did you know where to f-find me...?" He uncurled his body, maneuvering himself into the lap of a certain blue sports elf, burying his face in the elf's neck with a hiccuping sob.

"My crystal went off," Sportacus murmured, rubbing Robbie's back tenderly while the man sobbed. "Sometimes, it's not physical trouble someone's in... it's emotional. And you needed my help. So... here I am." He glanced down at the file, the pictures and news clippings peeking from the Manila file. Oh, goodness... Robbie must've been seeking information about his past. No wonder he was such a wreck. From what little he knew, he knew that Robbie's early life had been nothing short of a living hell. Robbie was only acting like one would when delving into such heavily emotion-laden memories.

Robbie could only nod against the elf, trembling as he held onto him like his life depended on it. He did indeed need help. He needed Sportacus's warm arms around him, his comforting embrace, his soothing voice... it always astonished him when Sportacus's crystal went off for him. Why would either the crystal or Sportacus care enough to save a villain, a man who was rotten? 

But Sportacus did care. He cared deeply, and always made sure that Robbie was safe. When Sportacus came to town and started saving him, it was the most kindness Robbie had experienced in a very long time, and Robbie hardly knew how to react or how to respond. All he knew was that he was deeply grateful that Sportacus was there for him, even though they were playful rivals.

Robbie was now loved. He was cared for, even cherished. His life now was quite different from his horrible childhood. He had a reason to wake up in the morning: Sportacus and the neighborhood kids. And now, curled up in the warm embrace of the sports elf, Robbie felt safe and warm, loved and needed. For the first time, Robbie felt like maybe his future wasn't so grim as he'd always envisioned it. Maybe, just maybe... he'd end up being ok.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you SO much for reading! I appreciate any and all feedback, as it helps me to improve as a writer! If y'all want, I might write more with this verse! :D I really love to delve into poor Robbie's past trauma, and I love the whole hurt/comfort Sportarobbie deal! :P


End file.
